Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
Lamentations 3:37-39
From God’s perspective there is nothing that humans should complain about circumstantially. Both good experiences and bad experiences that mark our lives will fulfill God’s purposes. No action of any human government anywhere, even when it is oppressive or wrong, happens outside God’s sovereign control or beyond the reach of the gospel! God will use even the wrong that human devise to bring about His purposes. He will even punish sin in some people through the actions of other sinners.
Lamentations was written as an epic poem of suffering. It builds solid worship theology from the worst human experiences possible. But even Jeremiah, the prophet who authored this book, knew that though Babylon was evil, God used pagan rulers to purge from Judah her sin and punish His people who had forsaken Him first. This suffering served a divine purpose: to call them to repentance and pull them back into heartfelt worship.
Lamentations 3:40-41
Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
And the constant chaos and regular disruption that has been this current landmark year of 2020 causes me to trust God that in this bad time, He will make of it circumstances that serve the purpose of calling many people to turn to God in repentance so that they embrace the love of Christ in the gospel!
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